How Long is Forever?
by Readerbook1981
Summary: The peace between the Cullens and the Quileutes has led to an end of the wolves/ Renesmee and Jacob are now faced with the prospect of losing eternity now that he can no longer shift and is aging as a normal human.


**New to Twilight fanfic but I've been a big fan of the series ever since I read the books several years ago. **

**This fic was bouncing around in my mind throughout the entire 2nd half of the movie and I had to get it out. I can't remember how old Jacob was in Breaking Dawn but I think he was 17. It won't make much difference once the story gets going.  
**

**It's not done but I have an idea of where its going so feedback is greatly appreciated.  
**

**Please review! Let me know what you guys think.  
**

* * *

Renesmee looked at Jacob seated next to her on the beach. Her rock, her protector, the one who had watched over her since she was a baby, the person she knew and loved even before she was born.

13 years, she had known him and loved him for 13 years. Since before she was born and he was 17. And now she looked like she was 18 but felt much older and he was 30 and perfect.

His face had shed it youthful roundness and was handsome with hard lines and angles and a manly seriousness that he rarely shed except when they were alone.

They had both been through more in their short lives that most could ever imagine witnessing.

Yet, time continued to pass, and even though they had lived these last years in a peaceful stillness, the reality of what they were was starting to barrel towards them.

As the Cullen family and the Quileutes grew closer together and it became apparent that vampires were no longer a threat to Forks or any of the surrounding tribal areas, the occurrence of new wolves appearing among the members of the tribe became a rarer and rarer occurrence until there were no new ones at all.

Then members of the existing wolf pack stopped shifting, starting with the most recent and youngest and then spreading to the more senior members of the pack.

And then one day, Jacob lost his ability to shift.

Renesmee felt like the air had left her lungs that day, like her perfect world had come crashing down on her.

And today, on his 30th birthday, the reality of his situation was made all the more clearer to her.

He would age, each year would pass and he would grow older, his body changing and growing older and eventually he would be gone.

And she would still be here, perfectly preserved at the ripe age of 18, alone for eternity.

It was a cruel joke the universe was playing on them, offering Jacob the role as protector and rewarding him with immortality, forcing him to imprint on her, and then taking it all away when he had done his job.

The peace they had hoped for had come at a steep price.

She was so lost in thought that she nearly jumped out of her skin when Jacob spoke.

"Stop it," he said, nudging her with his shoulder.

"What?"

"Stop looking so…forlorn." He had been dipping into the Cullen's library again, "You're thinking about it again."

They had referred to their situation as it, refusing to acknowledge it at times.

"How can I not Jake?" she said, using the nickname her mother had always used on him, her best friend, "We have to talk about it sometime. We're not going to have the time we thought-"

"Shh," he cut her off with a gentle kiss, "We have plenty of time."

"But I thought we had forever."

He cupped her face gently and his brow furrowed, she could see the creases around his eyes, more proof of her new reality.

"I'm only 30, and I stopped aging for awhile, that has to give me a few more years right?" he joked. He wiped away the tear that fell from her eye, "Ness, please, stop dwelling on this. Can't we just be happy with the time we have together?"

"Why won't you let me-"

He dropped his hand and shook his head roughly. "No," he growled.

He would never let her turn him, she had begged, had screamed at him and torn their house apart after they realized they had lost eternity. But he stood firm, he would never become a vampire. He couldn't do it and he would never forgive her if she did it. She had run to her parent's house that night, left him alone in the ruin of their living room and rushed through the forest, tears streaming down her face and crashed into the solid form of her mother, Bella Swan Cullen, the one who had survived the birth of an immortal child, who had heard her coming and was waiting for her in the clearing.

"He'll never forgive you," her mother had said when Renesmee mentioned her plan, when she stated she could do it whether Jacob willingly let her or not. "How long is forever when the person you love hates you for all eternity."

Bella had told her about her feelings and struggle with Edward, when she was the one aging and he was frozen in his teens, his aging stopped when he was a year younger than her. The nightmares, the anguished thoughts, they were all there, Bella explained, they were no doubt running through Jacob's mind but he could never become a vampire, it went against everything he was, everything his ancestors had been for hundreds of years.

So she had gone back to him, that every night, because she couldn't bear to lose even one night with him.

And now they were here, sitting on a cold beach, and trying to avoid the subject that was the white elephant in the room.

She shivered even though she wasn't really cold and Jacob put his warm arm around her and in one quick moment she was on her back and he was kissing her, his body pressing down on her like fire and she felt like her nerve endings might explode from the sensations as his warm hand snaked under her shirt and he spread out his fingers over her rib cage. The speed and agility he had gained from his wolf days were still there and she swore she could still smell the wolfie odor on him when the air was just right.

He pulled up from his kiss, pressing his forehead to hers and staring down at her and she could see the anguish in his eyes. The fear of what the future held for them and at once she really understood what it must be like for him.

She was facing the prospect of forever without him while he was facing the fact that his days were numbered.

Every day was one more tick of his clock before the end would come and she would still be here, her time with him just a blip on her long life.

He was afraid she would forget him, that his short life and their brief time together would be meaningless when she had eons.

His pain would be worse than she could ever imagine hers to be.

Renesmee stared into Jacob's eyes, full of pain and uncertainty and decided that if they couldn't be together forever, she would find another way to lessen the pain for them.

And she knew exactly what she could do.


End file.
